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Audacity Guide

CREAT IN G AU DIO FIL ES WIT H AU DACI TY

To create an audio file with Audacity, you first need to modify the audio settings.
MO DIFYING T HE R ECOR DING PRE FERENCE S

1. Open Audacity

2. Click on Edit > Preferences

3. Under Audio I/O tab, select your sound card from the Playback Device drop-down menu (if unsure, just leave as the default setting)

Audacity Guide

4. Under the Recording Device drop-down menu, select your microphone (if unsure, just leave as the default setting)

5. Make sure that under the Recording heading, the Channels are set to 1 (Mono) (saves on file size, since the podcast does not need to be stereo)

6. Click on the Quality tab and check that the default sample rate is set to 44100 Hz and that the default sample format is set to 32-bit float

Audacity Guide

7. Under File Formats, make sure that Uncompressed Export Format is set to WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM)

8. Set the MP3 Export Setup, Bit Rate to somewhere around 64. A general guideline would be to stay within is 24 192. A lower number (bitrate) will result in a smaller file size, just be sure to test it for quality.

Audacity Guide

9. Click OK button at the bottom to close Preferences.

RECOR DING AUDIO

To begin recording your audio file: 1. Press the Record button.

2. Begin talking and you will see that your voice is being recorded, and represented with line waves. A straight line indicates silence. If you are seeing straight lines then your audio is not being recorded--you should check to ensure that your microphone is setup and connected appropriately.

3. When you are finished recording your audio file, press the Stop Button.

Audacity Guide

4. To playback and listen to what you have recorded, press the Rewind button, followed by the Play button.

*Note: When recording, keep an eye on the levels meter at the top of the program (see diagram below), and ensure that the bars are always green and never go into the red. If it shows red, that means your audio is clipping, which can result in distorted playback. Another indication of clipping is when you can visually see that the tops and bottoms of your line waves are cutoff.

EDITIN G AUDI O

Once you have finished recording, you may notice that there are straight lines at the beginning and end of your recording, indicating silence. To remove these silent gaps, use the Selection Tool to select the portion of audio you wish to remove, and click delete. You can use the same process to remove other gaps of silence throughout your audio file or to edit portions of your recording.

You can also adjust the overall volume of each audio track in your recording. Located on the left side of the audio track window, you will see a slider with a - at one end and a + at the other. You can drag this appropriately to make that track quieter or louder.

Audacity Guide

*Note: Although you can use the slider to make it louder this should be done so with caution, as clipping will often occur, causing distorted playback. As a general guideline, volume levels should not surpass 0 db in order to avoid clipping.
AD DIN G MU SIC TO YOU R AUDI O FILE

Sometimes it can be desirable to add music to the beginning and end of a podcast to act respectively as intros/outros. To add music: 1. From the Project menu, select Import Audio and select the desired music file from the dialogue window. The music will be inserted into Audacity on a new track.

2. Using the Selection Tool, and employing the editing techniques used previously, trim the music file to the appropriate length. 3. If you need to reposition the tracks on the timeline, do so by selecting the Time Shift Tool and then clicking and dragging the track to the left or right into its desired position

Audacity Guide

4. Once the audio has been trimmed, you may want it to fade-in/out. To do this, use the Selection Tool to select the amount of the music track that you want to fade-in/out and then go to Effect > Fade-In (or Fade-Out). You will see that the audio line waves change to represent this section getting louder or quieter accordingly.

EXPORTIN G AU DIO TO AN ITUNE SU C O MPATIBL E FOR MAT

Although many audio formats are supported, Apple suggests using MP3. To export your audio file as an MP3: 1. Click File > Export As MP3

Audacity Guide

2. Give the file a name and click Save. 3. A prompt will be displayed to set the metadata (podcast information such as Name, Artist, Genre). Fill in the metadata for the file, and click OK.

4. Audacity will produce an MP3 file,